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Pickerington North has been voted the number one seed in the Central District of the Division I girls basketball tournament. The Panthers finished the regular season with an Ohio Capital Conference Ohio Division championship and a 19-1 record and are ranked number one in the Associated Press state poll. But seedings mean nothing once the tournament starts.

Pickerington North has been impressive this season behind 6-foot junior forward Kavunaa Edwards, 6-0 junior center Jordan Householder and guards Nicole Olszewski and her sister Shelby.

Olentangy (15-5) is seeded second in the Division II Central District. Head Coach John Feasel’s team won its first OCC Cardinal Division championship last Friday; its first in 11 years.

Africentric is 15-5 going into the tournament. The Nubians didn’t win the City League Championship for the first time since 2005. They’ve also moved from Division IV, where they won two of the previous three state championships, to Division III. Africentric lost to Brookhaven 46-41 last Saturday in the City League title game.

The record crowd of 108,713 in Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas watched Dallas native Chris Bosh make the winning free throws with 5.0 seconds left. The West had a chance to win it, but Carmelo Anthony’s three-point shot came up short.

But the biggest star in north Texas Sunday night, was Dwayne Wade had 28 points and won MVP honors, and the Eastern Conference defeated the West 141-139 in the NBA All-Star Game.

The largest cheer of the night came when Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones came onto the court to announce the record crowd, which was the largest in the $1.2 billion building’s short history. It easily shattered the previous record for the largest crowd to watch a basketball game of 78,129, set for a college matchup between Kentucky and Michigan State at Detroit’s Ford Field on December 13, 2003.

Wade, the MVP of the 2006 NBA finals when the Miami Heat won the title in Dallas, adding 11 assists and six rebounds. LeBron James had 25 points, and Chris Bosh finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds for the East.

The West were led by Carmelo Anthony’s 27 and Dirk Nowitzki’s 22 points, 12 of 16 from the field and also five steals.

Jamie McMurray, who had a very trying off season, held off Dale Earnhardt, Jr. to win the 2010 Daytona 500 in a thrilling finish. The Super Bowl of Nascar races, needed two stoppages that totaled more than two hours to patch a nagging pothole between turns 1 and 2 of Daytona International Speedway.

Nascar officials had hoped that the season-opening race would help re-energize the industry. But those delays sent NASCAR chairman Brian France into the broadcast booth to calm angry fans and to prevent a total fallout.

It was McMurray’s first race back with Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates, who game him his Sprint Cup Series shot in 2002. Jamie left and spent four frustrating and miserable seasons with RoushFenway Racing, then lost his ride at the end of 2009 when NASCAR forced Roush to drop a team to meet its four-car limit.

McMurray had to work hard to rejoin Ganassi, and the effort included persuading sponsor Bass Pro Shops owner Johnny Morris to move with him.

Finishing third was Greg Biffle driving a Ford. The top 2, Jamie McMurray and second place finisher Dale Earnhardt, Jr. drove Chevrolets.

The Ohio State women’s basketball team beat Minnesota at home on January 28, 81-58. On Sunday, the team and coaches knew that they would be in for a tougher fight in Williams Arena in Minneapolis.

With the score 45-45, OSU finally pulled away in the second half with an eight point run en route to an 64-59 win. The seventh ranked Buckeyes at 25-3 overall and 13-2 in the Big Ten which clinches another title.

The Buckeyes did not shoot the ball well at all from the field (35%) but made 26 of 30 from the free throw line which saved them.

Leading the way in scoring were Samantha Prahalis with 19 and Jantel Lavender adding 14.